Plant Guide
buildings. It is excellent for environmental plantings, MAY HAWTHORN including small specimen tree and shrub borders.
Crataegus aestivalis Walt. Status Plant Symbol = CRAE Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural Resources for this plant’s Contributed By: USDA NRCS National Plant Data current status, such as, state noxious status and Center wetland indicator values.
Description General: It is a spiny tree that grows to forty feet high and fifteen inches DBH. Leaves are narrow, broadest above or near the middle, dark green and shiny, serrated, seldom lobed and smooth. Flowers are white, produced singly or in two or three flowered clusters. Fruits are broadest above the middle or rounded, and red in color.
Distribution: May hawthorn grows on the outer coastal plain from North Carolina to Mississippi. For current distribution, please consult the plant profile page for this species on the PLANTS Web site.
Adaptation Although it will succeed in partial shade and different soil types, it grows best in full sunlight, well-drained loamy soils. May hawthorn will tolerate wet soils becoming drought tolerant once established. It is wind tolerant making it a good tree species in shelterbelt planting. It is also tolerant of atmospheric pollution and performs well in urban settings. It is R. Mohlenbrock commonly found in river swamps, pond areas, and USDA, NRCS, Wetland Sciences Institute stream banks. @ PLANTS Uses Establishment Erosion Control: Because it tolerates a wide variety Propagation from Seed or Grafting: May hawthorn of sites, it can be planted to stabilize banks, for can be propagated by either seeds or grafting. shelterbelts, and from wind and water erosion. Successful propagation using seeds requires acid scarification followed by warm stratification and Timber: Although the wood is hard and strong, it has prechilling. Seeds, whose numbers per pound (lb.) no commercial value except for tool handles and varies with species, are planted early in the fall, in other small items. Fruits are often gathered for drill rows eight to twelve inches apart and covered jellies. with 1/4 inch of soil. Seedlings must not be kept in the nursery longer than a year. Wildlife: It provides excellent cover and nesting sites for many smaller birds. Birds, rodents, and other Containerized trees should be planted when they are smaller mammals eat the small fruits. White tailed no more than eight feet tall, in the fall or early spring. deer browse the young twigs and leaves. Balled and burlapped trees should be planted in early spring. Beautification/landscape: It is used in beautification project around homes, city streets, and office
Plant Materials
Grafting on seedling stock of Crataegus oxyacantha USDA Forest Service 1974. Seeds of woody plants or Crataegus monogyna is best carried out in the in the United States. Agricultural Handbook 450. winter to early spring. USDA, Washington, DC.
Management USDA Forest Service 1990. Silvics of North Pruning should be done in the winter or early spring America. Agricultural Handbook 654. Forest in order to maintain a clear shoot leader on young Service, USDA, Washington, DC. trees and/or remove the weakest branches to allow more light to pass through. Suckers or stems arising Young, J. A. & C.G. Young. 1992. Seeds of woody from the roots should be removed when they become plants in North America. Revised and enlarged ed. noticeable. Dioscorides Press, Portland, Oregon
Pest and Potential Problems Prepared By Although pests and diseases seldom affect Crataegus Alfredo B. Lorenzo aestivalis, it is susceptible to fire-blight, cedar- Formerly, Southern University and A&M College hawthorn rust, cedar-quince rust, leaf blight and fruit College of Agricultural, Family and Consumer rot, and leaf spot. Sciences, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and Species Coordinator area of origin) Lincoln M. Moore Consult your local nurseries to choose the right USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center, Baton cultivar for your specific landscape. Rouge, Louisiana
Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Edited: 18apr02 jsp; 25feb03 ahv; 05jun06 jsp Service (formerly Soil Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone book under For more information about this and other plants, please contact your local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the ”United States Government.” The Natural Resources PLANTS Web site
References The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits Dirr, M.A. 1990. Manual of woody landscape discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political plants: their identification, ornamental beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all rd characteristics, culture, propagation and uses. 3 prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities ed. Stipes, Champaign, Illinois. who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD). Duncan, W.H. & M.B. Duncan 1988. Trees of the Southeastern United States. University of Georgia To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office Press, Athens, Georgia. of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call Elias, T.S. 1989. Field guide to North American 202-720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity trees. Revised ed. Grolier Book Clubs Inc., Danbury, provider and employer. Connecticut. Read about Civil Rights at the Natural Resources Convervation Service. Flint, H.L. 1983. Landscape plants for eastern North America. John Wiley and Sons, Inc, New York, New York.
Harrar, E.S. & J.G. Harrar. 1962. Guide to southern trees. 2nd ed. Dover Publications, Inc., New York, New York.
Little, E.E. 1996. National Audubon Society field guide to North American trees: Eastern region. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, New York.